The Vienna version of Alceste was Gluck’s second reform opera after Orfeo ed Euridice. The libretto and music revolve around a self-sacrificing main character, and it is quite probable that the courageous bearing of Empress Maria Theresia while mourning her husband who had died in 1765 provided Gluck with the impetus for working on this old-fashioned material. Alceste demonstrated the virtues typical of the 18th century, being like Beethoven’s subsequent Fidelio purely an anthem to conjugal love. As Orfeo before it, Alceste did not achieve major success at the first performance of the Vienna version, which took place at the Vienna Burgtheater on 26 December 1767, but instead became famous nine years later in Paris where it was performed as a tragédie opéra after the addition of ballet music in French (opera text by Marie-François-Louis Grand-Leblanc du Roullet). This production from 2006 was acclaimed as the Opera Production of the Year, by the German magazine OPERNWELT. The title roll is given by Catherine Naglestad, who became the Female Opera Singer of the Year 2006.